Pain

"This pain is not to make you sad, remember. That's where

people go on missing.... This pain is just to make you

more alert--because people become alert only when the arrow

goes deep into their heart and wounds them. Otherwise they

don't become alert. When life is easy, comfortable, convenient,

who cares? Who bothers to become alert? When a friend dies,

there is a possibility. When your woman leaves you alone--those

dark nights, you are lonely. You have loved that woman so much

and you have staked all, and then suddenly one day she is gone.

Crying in your loneliness, those are the occasions when,

if you use them, you can become aware.

The arrow is hurting: it can be used. The pain is not to make you miserable, the pain is to make you more aware! And when you are aware, misery disappears."

From Take it Easy, Volume 2 Chapter 12